Transfusion

Chapter 15

After that night, Elias was back to grating on my nerves, and being his usual obnoxiously flippant self. 

It didn't help that over the next two weeks, I was almost always paired with him on assignments. That wasn't what bothered me though, in fact working with Elias was ... nice. 

He was a pro and entirely efficient at what he did, be it tracking down someone who was missing, hacking a high security building and stealing money, or eliminating a target. For our assignments, we had to do all of the above, and everything had gone smoothly. The shooter that had targeted me outside of the pizza parlor hadn't shown up again either. 

Although at times I felt otherwise, I wasn't completely useless, I contributed with the details of our assignments while Elias took care of any "obstacles" that stood in our way, but he always let me help, and I did, gladly. 

After practicing in the makeshift gym a few more times, I felt more confident in my ability to take down an enemy, and I had to admit the thrill of being able to overpower someone much larger than me was exciting. 

I'd almost say that Elias and I made a good team, if he weren't so aloof all the time, pointing out my slightest mistakes with cold calculation and generally being an ass. I had to give him credit for keeping me out of danger though, he'd saved me on more than one occasion and I vowed to do the same for him and pay back that debt.

What did bother me, was that I couldn't spend as much time with Leon as I wanted to. On days that I could, he would sometimes be warm and affectionate, showering me with his dazzling smile, but other times he would be closed off and distant, as if his brain was elsewhere. 

On a day when he was paying particular attention to me, and we were standing closer than normal in the kitchen, I was sure he was about to kiss me.

 I held my breath and anticipated it, but he turned away at the last second, leaving me wondering what his lips would feel like pressed on mine.

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I sat cross legged in my room, trying to work on my meditation and calm the beating of my heart when I heard a faint knocking on my door.

"Come in."

Reina's slight figure peeked in and I was stunned for a moment, this was perhaps the first time she had sought me out, since I had started living here. I assumed she just didn't want anything to do with me, and not wanting to offend her, I'd left her alone.

"Can I speak with you for a moment?" her pale fingers twisted in her blonde hair nervously.

I nodded not wanting to scare her away. "What's up?"

Reina walked toward my desk and I noticed she brought her laptop.

"I..uh have something to show you, and I thought it was best to come to you first before I told everyone else."

Contrary to her behavior, her voice wasn't meek, she had a quiet conviction behind her words. The fact that she had come to me about Collective business was unexpected though.

She pulled up a file, and typed in a few words before  leaning back so I could take a closer look. What I saw had my blood freezing in my veins, and my shoulders tensing up. How was this possible?

I read it over again just to be sure, and then two more time. There was no mistaking it. Confusion swirled within me as unanswered questions bubbled to the top of my mind.

 I turned to Reina, "This is what you dug up on the Aero Pharmaceutical case?" The two scientists and their magic serum had been on my mind since I had researched them, and it was the only case that we were still stuck on. After the disaster Elias and Reina had encountered, Leon thought it was best to bid our time and continue gathering as much information on them through the implanted bugs, before striking. Now that Reina had been able to hack into their main computer, she had access to some of their files.

Reina nodded, "There was a whole list of names, but yours was the only one I recognized."

"What is this for?" I asked bleakly, part of me wasn't sure I wanted to know.

"They are a pharmaceutical company, they're bound to have a record of many people, I'm not sure what your particular list was for. It could be anything really."

Anything? that's unlikely. First I lose my memory, then I find my information on some sketchy scientists' files, this was highly suspicious.

There are things, that I don't want to admit, not to Reina, not to the Collective, and not even to myself. 

Things that have been creeping at the edge of my mind- inklings, or maybe they were fears. Either way I was getting to the bottom of my memory loss, before I drove myself crazy with speculation.

"You really don't have any other information?" I was desperate.

"No, I noticed that they kept hard copies of more delicate information in their office. I didn't have a chance to go through them though." 

Damn it.

"Will you tell Leon?"

"I..." she hesitated.

"Please don't!" I begged. I wasn't sure what was going on exactly, but I didn't want to get Leon or the rest of the Collective involved, not until I knew.

There was also no way to explain this, and it would almost be incriminating if taken without context.

Wordlessly, she agreed. Feeling relieved, and more than grateful to Reina for having the hindsight to show me this first, I spoke tentatively,

"Can we.. be friends?"

"I'd like that." she pushed her glasses up her nose, and gave me an almost smile.

I looked back at the file on the laptop:

Name: Ashlinn Ceros

Age: 19

Weight: 103

Height: 5'3

Blood type: AB

Feeling rather exposed, a chill ran through me.